Income Inequality at the Extremes, 85 = 3.5 billion.

Read below and see if the numbers don’t startle you. How can you have a functioning democracy with even a handful of these people in your country? Each one has more money than the total budget of most American states and good number of small nations. How do deal with that kind of concentration of economic power?

We have lived in a nation that has created more and more people like these. During this time, wages have stagnated or declined, the poor have multiplied and jobs are harder to find while education spirals in costs. What right do these people have to call themselves job creators when the evidence shows that it is a vibrant middle class supported by government policy that creates and maintains good jobs?

Our democracy is not threatened from abroad. It is threatened by an incredible wall of political money which makes the middle class and poor inconsequential in the making of policy. That’s not democracy.

James Pilant

The World’s 85 Richest People Own as Much as the 3.5 Billion Poorest | TIME.com

The world’s 85 richest individuals now own as much as the poorest half of the 7 billion global population, according to a report released by Oxfam on Monday.

The leading anti-poverty charity called on the global economic elite gathering in Davos this week for the World Economic Forum to “counter the growing tide of inequality” and prevent a static future in which only the rich have access to the best education and healthcare.

“It is staggering that in the 21st century, half of the world’s population own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all sit comfortably in a single train carriage,” said Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam Executive Director.